


Apparently Dragons Shed

by fw_feathers (mia826)



Series: Apparently Khadgar Is A Dragon [4]
Category: Warcraft (2016)
Genre: Gen, Pre-Slash, dragon!gar, i told you there's a plot, ish, khadgar is a dragon, khadgar thinks he's sneaky, lothar does his utmost to be dense because he is in DENIAL, yes the ship is moving folks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-18
Updated: 2016-07-18
Packaged: 2018-07-24 18:49:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7519316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mia826/pseuds/fw_feathers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(And Lothar wasn't worried. Really, he wasn't.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Apparently Dragons Shed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Eriakit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eriakit/gifts).



> _yes I finished summer semester take that finals!!_
> 
> Also, look at the [pic](http://img08.deviantart.net/0b7c/i/2013/314/7/b/blue_dragon_by_jmxd-d6ttgjq.jpg) Eria found me!! It looks _just like_ my headcanon idea of dragon!gar, except his hind legs aren't so big and his tail doesn't end in fins. The spines more of surround his head than grow out of his neck, and they don't have webbing. But it's _so close_!
> 
> this fic is also dedicated to Rekt, but I don't know your ao3 so here have personal mention instead <3

Lothar watches from a shadowed corner, unamused, as Khadgar drags a sack at least half his height down the hallway. The mage-dragon looks left and right like an amateur sneak as he creeps by, brown eyes wide and nervousness projecting from every pore. In his defense, the sack would scrape along the stone floor with a strange ringing noise every time he moved. So he has every right to be nervous.

Lothar decides to spare him the rest of the nerve-wracking trip and speaks up. “And where do you think you’re going, spell-chucker?”

Khadgar freezes. “Lothar,” he says, offering a weak smile. “Good to see you again.”

“Finally deigned to honor us with your presence?” Lothar raises an eyebrow, not impressed.

Khadgar’s smile falls, his expression turning into a frown. His full lips make it look like a pout. “I left a note.”

“Ah, yes. The note.” Without looking away from Khadgar, Lothar slips his hand into his pocket and pulls out a battered piece of parchment. “Do you mean this?”

Khadgars eyes flicker to Lothar’s hand before looking up at him again. Not waiting for him to say anything, Lothar flips open the folded note and recites the message from memory. His eyes never stray from Khadgar’s. He doesn’t think about the fact that he’s read the message enough times to memorize it. “Lothar: Going out for a bit. Don’t look for me. See you in a week.”

Color rises in Khadgar’s cheeks with every word. Lothar just keeps his skeptical expression trained on the mage. “Okay, so maybe I’m a couple of days late-” he starts.

Lothar pushes off the wall he’s been leaning against, long strides bringing him inside the mage’s personal space in a heartbeat. “’A couple of days’,” Lothar repeats. “That’s it? No explanation, no excuses, no, ‘I’m sorry for worrying you, Lothar’?”

He stops. Khadgar’s back is pressed against the wall, a mere two inches between the two of them. He looks up at Lothar, eyes wide and lips partway open. “You were worried about me?” he asks, sounding genuinely surprised.

That just punches a hole right through Lothar’s anger. Is it because he’s a dragon, or because Khadgar’s had no experience with someone trying to look out for him? He doesn’t know what his expression looks like now, but it makes Khadgar swallow and pull his bag closer to him. The contents make a ringing noise again.

“What _is_ in that?” Lothar asks, exasperated but glad for the easy subject change.

“My scales.”

“Your _what._ ”

“My scales,” Khadgar repeats, opening the sack. Sure enough, blue light shimmers from inside, as the rays of the setting sun reflected off the metallic contents. When Khadgar shakes the sack, the scales rub against each other, making that ringing noise from before.

“Why do you have your scales in a sack?” Lothar feels like his brain is wading through molasses. It’s like those times when Khadgar gets so enthusiastic over magic theory that Lothar has to make him recap to understand even a smidge of what he’s saying.

“It’s why I left.” Khadgar shifts his weight from foot to foot, avoiding Lothar’s gaze, even as he peeks up at him from time to time. “I was due for shedding this week, so I left to find a place to hunker down.”

A few more moments pass. Then it clicks. Lothar remembers books he’s read on how reptiles would shed their skins to grow, back when Taria suggested it might help in understanding their local dragon’s habits more.

“But why did you have to go?” Lothar demands, his irritation returning now that he knows the cause of Khadgar’s sudden disappearance. “You could have done that just as easily here, in Stormwind.”

“No, I couldn’t,” Khadgar says, his own irritation rising to match Lothar’s. “First of all, you have nowhere near big enough to hold me in my dragon form for an extended period of time. Second-” He cuts himself off, cursing under his breath. “Look, I _needed_ to go, okay? There’s no way I could do it here. I’m sorry for making you worry,” he adds, not sounding sincere at all, “but it was something I needed to do.” _So there,_ is left unsaid.

Lothar bites back the first thing he wants to say, as well as the second, and the third. His instinct is telling him there’s something more behind this, and after the incident with the healer, he’s not so quick to dismiss it. He tries to remember everything he’s learned so far about Khadgar, about dragons, and the place where those two coincide. “…Is this like the thing with… your stomach? And the head scratches?”

Khadgar’s shoulders fall with his relief. “Yes, exactly like that.” He smiles up at Lothar. Lothar’s not sure where the gratitude in his eyes are coming from. So he turns to the scales again, because they’re a handy subject change like that.

“So why did you keep those?” He motions towards the sack. Small wonder it’s so big, if it contains all the scales Khadgar shed. The biggest scales Khadgar has in dragon form are large enough to fit in the palm of Lothar’s hand.

Khadgar blinks. “I kept them for you.”

“For _me?_ ” Lothar gives the mage an incredulous look. This time Khadgar doesn’t meet his gaze at all, looking to the ground or over his shoulder instead. His fingers tug erratically at the hem of the bag.

“Yeah. I mean, we usually bury our scales, but they’re pretty tough, so I thought, maybe you could incorporate them into your armor? They’re heat resistant, but they should be easy enough to attach to cloth or chain armor. And they’re magic resistant, and can turn a blade too, so-”

Lothar places a hand over Khadgar’s mouth, if only to stop the mage’s nervous babbling. Khadgar gives him that watery, wide-eyed look that seems to come so naturally to him. Does he even _know_ how he looks like, when he looks at Lothar like that? He’s lucky it’s Lothar, and not some other asshole who would take advantage of a face like that.

“Thank you,” Lothar tells him. He feels like he’s missing something all over again, if the way Khadgar keeps fidgeting is any indication. But at least it shuts him up. Khadgar blinks at him, then reddens. Lothar can feel his smile forming under his palm.

“There’s enough for a complete set of plate armor, I think,” Khadgar says when Lothar lets go. His voice is earnest, and more than a little bit excited. “With a little bit left extra. Maybe you could turn the rest into chain mail for Varian, for his birthday.”

Lothar shakes his head, a smile forming on his face against his will. He takes the sack and slings it over his shoulder, grunting a little at the weight. Khadgar is stronger than he looks in human form, but Lothar is a bit too proud of the fact that he can still carry more than the mage-dragon in this state. He waves Khadgar on, to lead the way back to his rooms.

“You could have at least told me where you were going,” Lothar says again, unwilling to let the subject go. “What if you got into trouble?”

Khadgar rolls his eyes. Lothar can tell, even if the mage is walking in front of him. “Lothar, I roast everything that comes within ten feet of my cave during shedding days. Do you really want to be around me then?”

Lothar’s pretty sure the answer is yes. But he keeps his mouth shut, because he’s not sure where that answer’s from either.

**Author's Note:**

> hit me up with all your dragon!gar headcanons and questions and squeeing and anything, really, at my [main](http://arcane-renegade.tumblr.com) or my [writing blog](http://fleeting-white-feathers.tumblr.com)


End file.
